Given that the team England are likely to be sending to the Euros is turd with arguably its best player out of the equation for the two openers it's a thankless task. Hodgson though can polish turds and his appointment, hopefully, will lower expectations.
As for those saying he's a yes man, I think that's relatively insulting. He gets pretty good results out of mediocre resources and that is perfect for the England job. Anybody thinking that the appointment of Super Coach X would save the day and inspire us to Euro success is deluding themselves so we might as well plump for a guy who can put a team out which gives 100% and isn't dumbstruck by fear. Most of the regular participators over the past decade or so have fear embedded in them by the media (at international level) and it's something that successive foreign managers and best buddy types (McLaren/Keegan) have failed to eradicate. Perhaps, Hodgson's maturity (coupled with his nationality) is something that's been missing.
Certainly at Fulham and WBA he built, in a very quick time, two competitive teams which rarely went through form funks so why not go for him? I'm not comparing Hodgson with Hiddink but there's a lot to be said about managers who can drop into any team in the world and get them performing beyond their technical ability in a short space of time. If he hadn't gone to Liverpool I doubt anybody would be questioning the appointment and it would be a shame to let that sour episode influence people's opinion so much that they can't get past it to see what he is good at.
